Overview

The nineteenth century introduced a period of European-led African exploration unlike any other in history. Most significant were the travels of Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904), a British-born American journalist who was the first person to travel and record the entire length of the Congo River. Stanley was also the first European to circumnavigate Lake Victoria and the man responsible for opening parts of central Africa to transportation. Stanley's discoveries answered some of the main questions about the geography of Africa's interior waterways. His observations became the foundation for Belgian King Leopold's violent Congo Free State and inspired a period of imperialism whose effects continue today.

Background

One of the first European sightings of...